80 Briggs Seniors Steal the Show at Inter-Club Challenge

Originally posted on Canadian Karting News – https://www.canadiankartingnews.com/80-briggs-seniors-steal-the-show-at-inter-club-challenge/

For the second year in a row, an absolutely massive number of Briggs Senior drivers showed up for the Ontario Inter-Club Challenge at Goodwood Kartways, as 81 drivers registered to compete. A joint-club race between the members of TRAK, MIKA and HRKC, along with a few extras, competed for club racing supremacy, and they didn’t disappoint.

The jam-packed race day featured Qualifying, three heat races, a Super Heat, and a Feature race to determine the podium. Once again, weather was a factor, as cool temperatures and intermittent drizzles throughout the afternoon kept the Goodwood circuit cool and slick all day long.

Splitting into two groups for Qualifying meant 40 karts at a time took to the track with only six minutes to get heat into their Vega tires, find a drafting partner and clear track and set their best time.

Out of retirement for the weekend, Marco Di Leo (OK1) couldn’t miss the opportunity to race at Inter-Club, and he showed no signs of forgetting how to navigate his home track. He set the fastest time, just narrowly edging out Dylan Reny (Gillard) by 0.035 seconds. Young guns Declan Black (OK1) and Elijah Joshi (OK1) were just behind in third and fourth, while last week’s KartStars winner Jon Treadwell (Kubica) was in P5 as the top-30 drivers were within a second of the fastest time.

In the heat races, Black and Treadwell each won a pair while Di Leo and Joshi took the other two. Treadwell also notched a win in the first SuperHeat while Vassil Tchiplakov (Synergy) won the other, and with all the points combined, it was Di Leo and Joshi leading the field for the Final with Chad Webster (Kubica) and Treadwell on row two.

The top-40 drivers advanced to the Feature, the final race of the day, with the sun finally shining. With nobody willing to give an inch, the first two attempts at a start resulted in red flags. The third time was a charm, and the massive group of Briggs engines roared around the circuit.

Di Leo got the run with a nice push from Webster that actually forced Di Leo wide. Webster snuck up the inside and took the lead into corner four, and the race was underway.

Treadwell and Joshi were also able to get by Di Leo on the opening lap, but the veteran wasted little time working his way back to second place on lap three. Locking onto the rear bumper of Treadwell, the pair pushed away from Joshi and Webster.

After the halfway mark, Treadwell started to defend, allowing the chasing karts to close back in on the race leaders. Di Leo found his way to the lead with three laps to go in corner five.

As the karts received the last lap board, Di Leo had a three-kart length lead over Treadwell, but a huge push from Webster and Michael Ing (Coyote), who quietly worked his way to the lead pack, helped close the gap. Getting to the rear bumper in corner seven, Di Leo was forced to defend down into corner nine. Giving him a bump at the apex, Treadwell moved Di Leo out of the way and got up the inside. Webster pushed him by the race leader, with Ing also getting by.

Treadwell celebrated the race win at the finish line just ahead of Webster and Ing, but the race wasn’t done there.

The race officials issued a penalty to Webster for moving Di Leo on the start and to Treadwell for moving Di Leo on the final lap.

This moved Ing, last year’s Inter-Club fastest qualifier and last week’s Prom King, to the top step of the podium. Webster, Di Leo, Treadwell and Major Makovskis (Kosmic) completed the podium after an epic day of racing.